''Victorian People: A Reassessment of Persons and Themes, 1851-1867'' is a book by the historian

Asa Briggs Asa Briggs, Baron Briggs (7 May 1921 – 15 March 2016) was an English historian. He was a leading specialist on the Victorian era, and the foremost historian of broadcasting in Britain. Briggs achieved international recognition during his lon ...

originally published in 1955. It is part of a trilogy that also incorporates '' Victorian Cities'' and '' Victorian Things''.

Content

Briggs's analysis spans a relatively short part of the Victorian era, encompassing the period between the

Great Exhibition The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition (in reference to the temporary structure in which it was held), was an international exhibition that took ...

of 1851 and the passage of the

Reform Act 1867 The Representation of the People Act 1867 ( 30 & 31 Vict. c. 102), known as the Reform Act 1867 or the Second Reform Act, is an act of the British Parliament that enfranchised part of the urban male working class in England and Wales for the ...

. In particular he focuses upon the involvement of key individuals in the policies and cultural developments of the time. He argues that the period in question was one that had traditionally suffered from a lack of historical scholarship and was interesting in its own right, being the high-Victorian stage marked by a focus upon 'thought', 'work' and 'progress' and a belief in British institutions after the negotiation of the cataclysms and challenges of 1848. The chapters are as follows: # Introduction # The Crystal Palace and the Men of 1851 #

John Arthur Roebuck John Arthur Roebuck (28 December 1802 – 30 November 1879), British politician, was born at Chennai, Madras, in India. He was raised in Canada, and moved to England in 1824, and became intimate with the leading Radicals (UK), radical and utili ...

and the

Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...

# Trollope, Bagehot, and the English Constitution #

Samuel Smiles Samuel Smiles (23 December 1812 – 16 April 1904) was a British author and government reformer. Although he campaigned on a Chartist platform, he promoted the idea that more progress would come from new attitudes than from new laws. His prim ...

and the Gospel of Work #

Thomas Hughes Thomas Hughes (20 October 1822 – 22 March 1896) was an English lawyer, judge, politician and author. He is most famous for his novel ''Tom Brown's School Days'' (1857), a semi-autobiographical work set at Rugby School, which Hughes had atte ...

and the Public Schools # Robert Applegarth and the Trade-Unions #

John Bright John Bright (16 November 1811 – 27 March 1889) was a British Radical and Liberal statesman, one of the greatest orators of his generation and a promoter of free trade policies. A Quaker, Bright is most famous for battling the Corn La ...

and the Creed of Reform #

Robert Lowe Robert Lowe, 1st Viscount Sherbrooke, GCB, PC (4 December 1811 – 27 July 1892), British statesman, was a Liberal politician who helped shape British politics in the latter half of the 19th century. He held office under William Ewart Glad ...

and the Fear of Democracy #

Benjamin Disraeli Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield (21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881) was a British statesman, Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician and writer who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He played a ...

and the Leap in the Dark # Epilogue

References

{{reflist

External links

Victorian People by Asa Briggs
at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

1955 non-fiction books History books about the United Kingdom History books about the 19th century